I appreciated Tom Moran’s honesty. I have always admired The Star Ledger’s editorials; they are well-reasoned and one of the attractions that make me a subscriber.

However, the Christie endorsement on Oct. 20 — although full of equivocation — was perplexing. How could the editor, I wondered, say such damning things about a candidate and still urge us to vote for him? I’m glad I didn’t take your advice!

Christie has not been good for New Jersey, nor for the Republican Party. Is there a rule somewhere that a newspaper must endorse someone? Must a paper take the "lesser than two evils" approach? If both candidates are flawed, why not just lay out the information and encourage the voters to decide for themselves?

Carolyn Bross, Bloomingdale

Predictable opinion

The piece by Tom Moran expressing his regrets for having endorsed the governor’s re-election actually made me laugh out loud.

It’s about what I expected, but also made me wonder why there were no similar regrets expressed by the paper after its endorsement of Harrison Williams, Jon Corzine, Bill Clinton and Sharpe James to name a very few.

The predictability of The Star-Ledger’s positions on almost any issue make reading the editorial page a waste of time, and the endorsement for which the regrets were tendered was the most "left-handed compliment" I’ve ever read. If Democrat Barbara Buono had displayed any reason, any reason at all, to vote for her, the regrets would not have been necessary because you’d have never endorsed the governor to begin with.

Daniel Hodge, Union

If only ...

I knew about Gov. Chris Christie and voted for state Sen. Barbara Buono. When your paper endorsed Christie, it kind of took the wind out of the sails and made it seem like Christie was inevitable. In fact if Buono had received the support of key people in her own party, she could have won and we wouldn’t have this mess on our hands.

Cherie Kipple, West Orange

Stick to the facts

I’m not happy with Tom Moran’s column in Sunday’s Star-Ledger. Here is what your paper seems to be saying: Chris Christie may be a bully, but he’s our bully.

The Star-Ledger editorial board is not sure his policies are right for New Jersey, but will continue to say nice things about him so that he has a better chance in Iowa and New Hampshire in 2016. In the meantime, New Jersey residents will have to suffer with Christie’s stubbornness on important issues: transportation, health care, the environment and public employee pensions.

Do we need scare tactics in an opinion column? Your paper is better than that. But in his closing paragraphs, Moran tries to raise support for the governor by warning everyone that Mike Huckabee or Ted Cruz would be worse.

My message to you: We don’t like the apology, especially when we are seeing editorial articles that are cheerleading for the Christie campaign. Instead, we think it would be better for New Jersey if you would just focus on the job that your newspaper does best: Ask questions, find the truth and print it.

Dennis Mancl, Bridgewater

History repeats

Tom Moran offered a rather limp rationalization for The Star-Ledger’s endorsement of Gov. Christie for re-election, and expressed a rather tepid degree of remorse for the choice.

The bottom line for me was this: Christie’s conservative economic and social views are unacceptable to me, and I feel the man is not trustworthy. His economic policies, geared to reward the already well-to-do, ignore the middle and lower classes, and the state’s high unemployment rate backs this up.

The governor is a bully and quickly turns on colleagues (Bret Schundler, Tom Kean Jr.) who don’t please him. That’s why I was astonished and quite angry when I read the Christie endorsement.

But take heart, Star-Ledger editorial board. On Nov. 24, 1863, the Harrisburg Patriot and Union printed a scathing analysis of the Gettysburg Address. One week shy of exactly 150 years later, Nov. 17, 2013, the successor paper, the Patriot-News, printed a retraction and apology. The Star-Ledger acted more expeditiously!

Bill Gottdenker, Mountainside

Hard to believe

How could you endorse Chris Christie for governor after what we saw of him during his first term? He is a bully, pure and simple.

He has made people cry. He stopped the construction of the new Hudson River Tunnels. He won’t raise gas taxes even though it’s needed. He put a tax cap of 2 percent on property taxes. Yet, towns raise fees to get more money.

If you didn’t like Barbara Buono, you could have withheld your endorsement. At least you admit that you made a mistake.

Jim Kerner, Bergenfield

Time to resign

I don’t live in New Jersey but thought your editorial writer’s post-election un-endorsement of Gov. Chris Christie was very refreshing. A suggestion for the governor: Resign. If you’re convinced that you still have the support of the public, run for re-election after you have stepped down.

The voters of New Jersey have more facts about you now — and they will learn more about your strong-arm tactics, bullying and punishments between now and a special election day. It’s possible they will forgive. It’s also possible they will want their chief executive to be less of a bully. Let the people decide if they still want a governor like Christie.